I had 10y or so experience with CAD when onshape showed up around 2014. You could tell from the beginning that they cared a ton about usability and had their minds wrapped around how people use CAD. It’s only got better since.
I highly recommend the cadmium folks just soak themselves in onshape’s UX.
Why is open source always so bad at UUX - it's so frustrating. I believe the people who say FreeCAD is powerful but I'm skeptical I will ever experience it.
Probably because every contributor has their own variation of UX they prefer, which they contribute and merge with all the other code. It leads to a lot of inconsistencies which are avoided when you have a hierarchy and a leader who makes everyone adjust their vision. It’s hard to do that with smaller OSS projects, they probably can’t afford alienating contributors by telling them how to do stuff.
You can't do UI in small pieces. Most things like new algorithms or functionality can be added in a very localized way that doesn't impact other components. A UI on the other hand encompasses everything and also needs taste. And tastes are different.
> Why is open source always so bad at UUX - it's so frustrating.
To illustrate why... There's a certain "artistic" FOSS project (before you ask — not GIMP) where the community, incl. former lead dev basically say this:
- UX is bullshit, it's just opinions (verbatim quote)
- No two people agree on what is the right way, so anyone willing to improve UX in this project will have to fight everybody else, don't hold your hopes high (almost a verbatim quote)
- We don't like drama in this community, so we tend to just accept patches that change UI (you'd think this contradicts the previous statement, but somehow the impossible is possible)
They'd also mock a person who wrote a very elaborate first impressions blog post about the software, claiming she is an idiot who didn't bother learning the software.
I don't think the FreeCAD community was ever this bad, but there certainly was a strong element of chaos before. Things are considerably better today. There's a design working group working its way through various incosistencies, for one. It's a long-term project, no doubt about it, they are slowly getting there.
I highly recommend the cadmium folks just soak themselves in onshape’s UX.